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NAD - 1970's Gem Saturn B50


jimbartlett
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Picked the Gem Saturn B50 up yesterday off Spencer on here, plugged it into my DB212 and couldn't be happier. Some lovely vintage tones coming out of this thing and coupled with my Gibson Thunderbird, I'm in heaven. Can't wait to try it at gig volume tomorrow night!

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I had one for a short period (maybe this is the same one?) which I had Mr. Foxen look at for me as it had a few problems when I got it.

Massive amounts of bass on tap and although there's not much treble available, the mids really shine through and you can nail vintage tone. Loads of volume too, surprisingly so!

Is there a jack socket in the back? If so, it'll be my old one. They were originally manufactured with an attached speaker cable which was a bit dodgy. Miss it a little bit actually, sounded like nothing else!

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Yep that's the one, it has a jack socket in the back. Channel 2 seems like a guitar Channel than a bass one. Channel one is awesome though. The Aguilar cab must help with the treble because I don't have any problem (so far) but you are dead right on the bass/mid on tap. Love it and I can't wait for tomorrow night to use it in anger with the band.

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Looks like fun - I like weird old valve amps.
Do these have a transistor input stage like the Gem guitar amps do? If so, the lack of treble Truckstop mentions might be down to a low input impedance which causes passive instruments to lose high-end. It seems to be a common issue with transistor preamps of this era - I've had a couple of old ss pre/valve powered Dynacord amps with the same thing going on. Running a buffer in front (like a Boss pedal in bypass mode) livens up the response of the Dynacords, so it might be worth trying with this amp.

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If memory serves, it's not a full valve amp. It's a very early hybrid, can't remember the configuration though. There was something very odd about the preamp that Mr. Foxen discovered but can't remember what it was.

Oh well, it sounds boss so never mind!

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If you happen to have a eureka moment and remember, could you please let me know what it was he found out? Thanks!

My Dad is having a look tonight at the insides. He worked for years and years with valves, circuits and electronics in the 70's and early 80's so he's always a good consultant to me on stuff like this :-)

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I took it to rehearsal last night and it needs to be cranked to pretty much all the way to be heard. This obviously leads to distortion and a bit too much for the band I tried it with.

I've been talking to the guy at AudioStorm about a Hot Box he is making. When it's finished then I'll go from the speaker out on the Gem into the Hot Box which will take the load from the amp and spit out a line level for me to plug into a power amp and into my Aguilar DB212. Boom! Amp Slaving so I can use the Gem as my pre amp for my tone😊

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[quote name='Twincam' timestamp='1467219697' post='3082061']
I would like to see a gut shot of the amp if possible. There a gut shot thread here
http://basschat.co.uk/topic/73929-amp-guts/page__st__60
[/quote]

Sure thing mate. I'll try and sort this tomorrow night and post it up.

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Just got my Dummy Load box through from Rat Electronics and it is perfect! I can crank the amp or have it on a low setting and get all the richness from the valve tone into a line level then into a 1kw power amp.

I highly recommend one of these boxes if you have a valve amp without the headroom for a band situation or even if you just fancy playing through you head into headphones at home 😊

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Most modern amps have a DI or line out built in but the older ones don't. The problem with this amp was that I loved the tone but to get the volume in a band situation, I was driving it so hard it was majorly distorted, too much for my use. I then thought that if I had a line out or DI I could run that into a power amp instead and then have the volume so I looked around and found this for £55. All hand built here in the UK.

It's an attenuator which lowers your amp’s output to line level. When using a tube amp, the speaker dissipates energy from the amp as sound. You must always have a load of some sort connected to your speaker-out jack, or you can severely damage the amp.

This safely loads the amp into the box rather than a speaker and gives me a Line Out level (with a level boost toggle) and a Headphone Out (with a level boost toggle). You can also use the Speaker Passthrough so that your amp and speaker work as normal but you can also take a line level out into another amp.

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Absolutely, it would do that no problem. It's a set level but also has a set boost in case you need a hotter line out.

It works the other way too. If you had a small valve combo you love but it's not loud enough to gig, get one of these and plug the speaker out into in then line into a power amp or the send of another amps effect loop and away you go!

They sell different impedance boxes to suit your amp, mine just happens to be 8ohm.

Edited by jimbartlett
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